Chuck Berry Still Playing Live

Chuck Berry remembers being cheated by the Chess brothers: “[Phil Chess finally acknowledged] in writing that no songwriter royalties had been paid for three years on my Chess Records product … [And in a review of Chess documents] I was surprised to learn that I had been paid the same songwriter royalties for an LP as I was receiving for a single record. Chess claimed to be unaware of this ‘mistake,’ as if they had never noticed that LPs had between eight and ten songs on them.” [BERRY, C., p. 246-247]

“The whole history of rock ‘n’ roll,” noted the London Guardian in a review of Jewish author Michael Billig‘s book about the subject, “has been portrayed as white artists ‘ripping off’ black music. Only now [with Billig‘s volume] has the major Jewish contribution been acknowledged.” [ARNOT, C., 10-4-2000, p. 6] Atlanta-based Mark Shimmel, for instance, is the CEO of LaFace Records, which headlines TLC, Usher, Tonik Braxton, GoodiMob, “and a raft of hot hip-hop artists … He built his own company, managing talents as varied as John Denver and Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn … He doesn’t worry much about what he calls ‘the white guy in the black music business.'” He has also worked with Huey Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Ray Charles, and former Eagle Don Henley. [POLLAK, S., 1-7-00]’